Wayanad - A picture story of Winding roads and Walnut cakes

It was a long weekend and we had taken Thursday off to plan a road trip to Wayanad. This was our first pleasure trip as a family and we wanted to make it a memorable one. Wednesday evening at around 4:30 we started off for Mysore. We planned to break the journey so as to not make it too hectic for our little one.


At Kamat Upahara enjoying a plate of Maddur wade and tea.
We didn't stop anywhere after this and by 8:30 we had checked in into Kamat Mayura. The alien place and the dull interiors must have scared him as Ojas broke into a loud bellow. It was not long before he settled down and so did we.



A good night's sleep was very refreshing. After having breakfast at the hotel, we left for Wayanad at around 9.

We chose to take the route via Nanjangud and Gudalpet. This posting was very helpful. There was not much traffic on the roads. It's more or less straight road from Mysore to Gundalpet and we covered it in an hour and a half. At Gundalpet we took a short break where we had tea at this Nandini stall.

As we left Gundalpet, we took the road on the right leading to Kerala. The road from here to Wayanad passes through a forest and you have to be careful as you negotiate the winding turns. The road is lined with trees on both the sides and it's quite a pleasant drive. If you are lucky you might have a free safari. We did bump into a few monkeys and an elephant but I was really hoping for a wild cat blocking the road!

A 30 mins drive through the wilderness brought us to the Kerala border marked by a small bridge. On the other side of the bridge we passed a series of check posts. We zoomed past through without any formalities and entered Wayanad through Sultan Bathery.

From here on the road was quite crowded as we passed through Sultan Bathery, Kalpetta and a few smaller towns before we reached our destination - Vythiri. A few hundred meters down a dusty track took us to the Stream Valley Resort where we had booked a cottage for us.


The two room cottage was spacious and cool thanks to the greenery all around. Ojas who had just started crawling was moving all over and exploring the new place. We were in time for lunch and what a lunch it was! Fish fry, chicken curry, avial, sambar, and cabbage. We ate like there was no tomorrow.

Swathi and Ojas in a playful mood in the cottage porch.
We lazed around in the afternoon watching TV. In the evening just when we were planning to head out, it started pouring cats and dogs! Stranded inside with nowhere to go, we just sat there in the porch enjoying the rain. It was almost 6 that the rain abated and we could finally get out. By then most of the tourist places were closed. So we just drove down to the Kalpetta market for shopping. There is just this one road that cuts through the main town and is lined with closely packed small shops on both the sides. Here all prices are fixed; haggling is not at all an option. Even Swathi, skilled in that art, found it tough to reduce a penny.

We finally made it to the Pookote lake the next day morning. Here we are enjoying a pedal boat ride in the lake.

This had become our second home as we stopped by here almost all the times that we passed it. We swept the whole shop, be it the walnut cakes, the chicken roll, banana puff, the filled roll, five-six types of muffins, there was nothing that we left untasted.

We also visited the 5000 yrs old Edekkal caves with some inexplicable etchings on the stone. Supposedly a popular destination for the archeologists, we didn't find the caves as interesting. The trek up to the caves itself was fun filled and with Ojas, it was quite an adventure. With make shift stone steps the climb is quite steep at some places but definitely not unmanageable even with an infant. Happily hanging in his carrier, Ojas utterly enjoyed his first trek as he was smiling and chatting with the on goers.

On our way back from the caves, we stopped by at this bakery cum cafe that served middle eastern cuisine. Here we tried chicken al faham and khuboos. We had never tried it before and we absolutely loved these middle eastern delicacies!




Wayanad snaps @ picasa

~Ashish.

Bannerghatta National Park

Another one off my list must say. Have been wanting to visit a national park for long time and somehow had not been able to visit this one just next doors. Well not really next doors; it's about 25km from Bangalore. But still a good weekend getaway. A national park cum zoo, animal lovers would love this place.

Having heard that the place gets crowded later in the day, we decided to reach there early. It was two of us, our 7 months old kid Ojas, my mom and Swathi's friend Ananya. And it was a Sunday morning. So by the time we all could get ready and hit the road it was 9. The city gets up late on the weekends; the usual hubbub on the roads was absent. It just took us an hour to reach our destiny. Happily munching on the parathas that we had packed, we didn't even realize the drive. We knew we were in at a good time when we didn't see many cars in the parking. We had an option of just visiting the zoo, or taking the lion and tiger safari or taking the grand safari that includes herbivores in addition to lions and tigers. We chose the grand safari which costs 125/- along with 20 bucks for the camera. There was moderate queue for the safari and good number of (mini) buses to take the visitors around. Apparently the park was open to private cars long ago. But thanks to some over enthusiastic animals (not outside but in the car!) and a few mishaps private cars were banned. KSTDC now operates these buses secured with nets with small openings for people to take snaps. The whole area is divided into sections marked for different animals and each with guarded gates. As the bus moved on the serpentine jungle road, it threw the people left and right. The driver was speeding on the narrow road totally oblivious of the fact that he was dragging a full bus behind him! To add to this there were people practically throwing themselves on others in an attempt to get a spot close to the few openings in the shielded bus and a view of the animals. We passed spotted deers, black bucks, bears, lions and tigers before being dropped at the butterfly park. Good part of this park is that since there are cordoned areas for animals, you can be sure of spotting them unlike the other national parks where you need to time your visit and still need to be lucky to get a glimpse of the wild life.

Butterfly park supposedly the first one in India is another major attraction here. Housed in a big dome shaped structure, full of vegetation apt for butterflies, we spotted many different varieties. We took a lot of snaps here. Our modest point and click was hardly a match to the SLRs that a few people around were brandishing. Trying to get the best shot and inventing new yoga poses in the process they were quite an entertainment. For the more serious visitors there's a museum and a short informative movie. I was personally quite moved to learn that only 10% of the eggs survive and have to evade a lot of predator attacks during their life before they become butterflies as we know them and so much for a life that lasts only a week! Swathi tried to assuage my "heart felt" pain saying that it was much better to live a 7 days long happy life than living a 100 years long unfulfilled life. She went on to say that the god must be having a good laugh up there seeing us striving so hard to live our 100 years long life while he enjoys his immortal being. That was a dose tad too much for my innocuous sentiment and I immediately rubbished the whole thought!

The sun was over our heads by now and we were completely dehydrated. We dragged ourselves back to the zoo. The supposedly 2 mins walk seemed never-ending. Here we refueled ourselves with the parathas, and bread that we had got. Curds was refreshing and perfect to beat the heat. Ojas had already had his share of lunch at the butterfly park. So he sat there silently staring at us, his eyes heavy and drowsy because of the heat outside. We felt as if somebody had blown life back into us. With Ojas in his pram five of us headed back to the zoo.

It's funny how seeing a zoo enthuses me in spite of having already seen so many. It's probably the same reason that enthuses me when I meet my relations after a long time. After all we are all related at some level in the evolution tree! What is more surprising is that I still cannot make out the difference between a langur, and macaque and chimp and orang. The last two were not there in this zoo but am sure I wouldn't have been able to tell them apart. We tried to show the animals to our little one. But he kept staring at us and out hand as we pointed it towards the cage. I think we animals more than satiate his entertainment needs! By the fourth or fifth cage he had happily slept off. The walkway was badly tarred and there were patches of mud and gravel. So we had to often hoist his pram at such places. At other places there were steps and no slope to push his pram. Luckily like his dad he's not the kinds who gets perturbed by these "slight" disturbances. So we continued moving from cage to cage. Swathi was surprised to find all love birds sitting in pairs. And there was one who was sitting alone and she promptly concluded that he was "single and ready to mingle"! Everybody suddenly had the urge to see elephant. Ananya, who had visited the zoo earlier about 5 years back vaguely remembered that it was towards the end of the zoo. By now the ladies were exhausted but the new found hope of seeing an elephant drove them to walk it up to the end of the zoo. What was it about an elephant I don't know. Probably the sight of an animal so much bigger in size than theirs gives them some pleasure! Anyways we walked it up to the end of the zoo only to see a huge empty ground. Our tired minds concluded that they could probably not take care of animals in these times of recession and had therefore dumped them into oblivion. It did not strike us that they could be at the other end of the zoo. And there they were serving joy rides to people!

We spent a good two hrs in the zoo where we came across the usual set of animals. Nothing new or appealing. There were some crazy buggers trying to probe the sleeping animals or feed them not heeding to the sign boards suggesting otherwise. There was little manned security inside the zoo. By the end of the tour, we were all visibly tired and drained. Puffing and panting we made it to the exit and grabbed a couple of bottles of water.

The day was still now over. By about 4 we were at Ananya's place. We spent the evening there, had her special green tea, some home made snacks, and caught some nap. At about 8 she took us to this homely Bengali eating joint with a rather unfathomable name "Gugababa"! While the name might be inexplicable, it was quite interesting and so was the food. We were all starving after the day's exertion and hogged on our meals, a plate of chicken curry, (ruhi) fish curry and fried fish. Unfortunately they didn't have sweets that day. So we then landed up at the K C das shop close by where we gulped a few katoris of mishti dhoi (yogurt) and packed a few pieces of roshgulla. It was a perfect end to the long tiring but fun-filled day!

Bannerghatta Snaps

~Ashish

Hogenekkal - The Niagara of India

This had been on my mental list of "Places to visit" for a long time. So when we were thinking for a weekend getaway last weekend, Hogenekkal promptly came to my mind. I and Swathi (my wife) did a quick check with our friends to see if anybody else was interested. Ananya and Rakesh jumped to the idea. Places like these aren't fun enough without a bigger group and now that we had one, we were all dying of excitement and eagerly waiting for the saturday!

Driving in the sun could be both tiring and torturous. We wanted to reach Hogenekkal before the sun reached over the head. Swathi did a commendable job in ensuring that we started early. Not only did she get up early herself but also ensured that the others were up and ready. I braved her shouting, tickling, and even water sprinkling by not budging out of the blanket but when she resorted to emotional intimidation, I had to give in! It was 7 by the time we had picked up the other two and hit the road to Hosur. It is peak winter in Bangalore yet not too chilly. The cool breeze outside was just perfect for a jaunt like this. The drive was marred only by the thick fog that limited the visibility to less than 30 meters! It was quite a task steering the car in such Cat III conditions (as they would call in the aircraft jargon) with one hand on the wheel and the other cleaning the windshield. Luckily the exercise didn't last long as the sun rose further up. By now we all had gained our tempo and were excitedly talking about various things under the earth. Ananya had got with her a stock of tidbits that ensured that we kept our mouths busy one way or the other. But biscuits and kurkure was hardly enough for the starved gluttons like us. We decided to stop by at Hosur and grab some grub. Having read in some blogs that the Sarvana Bhavan there is nothing like the original chain of restaurants, we gave it a pass and walked into Meenakshi Bhavan that although less known looked authentic. And the food was not bad at all. Not only did we hog on the idlis, wadas, dosas and pongal, but also packed some for lunch.

From here there were two ways to go - either the golden quadrilateral or the state highway. The GQ route via Krishnagiri is longer and we had taken that earlier enroute Chennai. We decided to try the SH route via Rayakottai. We were told that although not as good as the other, this way is about 40 km shorter. It's also much more scenic and of course there is no toll to pay! The road wasn't all that bad after all. It seemed to be newly laid at a lot of places. But yes, we hit a few bumpy patches just when we used to smile at our smart decision. The journey was smooth. Rakesh was admiring the rocky hills around, thinking of the challenges that they might pose to a skilled rock climber. His creative mind also saw some known figures in the weirdly shaped boulders. Swathi was awed by the lush green fields around and was finding it hard to suppress the urge to take a run through them! Ananya caught some cat nap and as she got up, all she could think of was some hot tea. So stop we did at a road-side thela sipping on a glass of tea. The caffeine did its work as we were all charged up again for the onward tour. It was not long before we had passed Dharampuri and had entered the forest area. We not only had to pay 40 Rs to enter the forest but also had to cuff up 10 bucks as baksheesh to get our vehicle number on their register! Little did we know that the looting had only begun!

As we neared our destination, another person with a receipt book waved at us and demanded 40 Rs towards area development or some such thing. Doubting his authenticity, we coaxed him to give more details. Finding him confronted, few more people joined him. Having come on a pleasure trip, we had no intentions of making a mountain out of a molehill that too without any circumstantial evidence of their spurious intentions. As we parked our car, at least half a dozen boatmen came running to us asking if we wanted to take the boat ride. The waterfalls are a little far from the land and the only way to reach there is by a corracle ride over the Kaveri waters. It doesn't take a smart businessman to spot this as an opportunity to make big bucks. Although we had read on other posts that the rowers charge heavily for the ride, we were taken aback when one demanded 1800 bucks for it. I usually rely on Swathi for all the haggling. One because she is fluent at all the south indian languages, and secondly because she has a lot of patience at tasks like these! This time, she seemed to have met her match. The boatman was just not ready to budge even after 15 mins of dillydallying and arguing. As she resorted to the last option and started walking away, our mate finally acceded to take us around for 1000.

It was almost noon when we hopped into that small round bamboo boat. Although the sun was shining on us, the water was refreshingly cold. As we looked around the ravine with child like excitement, the coracle swirled and danced in the not so calm waters. We had to pay 40 Rs more towards taxes before we could proceed to the falls. The boatman stopped at a little island like structure that we had to cross on foot while he carried the boat to the other side. The place was littered with small shops selling snacks and fish! Yes fish, fresh catch from the river was being fried and sold! It looked so inviting that we couldn't leave the place without picking up a handful of them all for 10 bucks a piece. We resumed our forward ride happily nibbling on to our fish. It is here that we saw little kids lining the cliff tops, beckoning us to pay them 5 Rs for a dive. The cliff must be at least 20' high, the river not deep enough and with a rocky bed. It was a dangerously risky proposition fit only to be on "Fear factor". Needless to say that we did not encourage it. By now, we could see a few water falls at a distance. The boatman told us that in peak monsoon the place is full of many more falls and the water level is much higher. No wonder then that this is touted as the Niagara of India. Also, it is at the border of Karnataka and Tamilnadu and that could be another reason for its comparison with the Niagara. As he rowed the boat close to one of the falls, we could see the smoke as the falling water hit the rocky base. 'Hog' in kannada means smoke and 'kal' means rock, hence the name Hogenekkal. He moved the boat so close that we all got soaked! Seeing that we were thoroughly enjoying the water play, he stopped at one place and started rotating the boat in circles! We were reminded of the Merry-go-round ride except that this was in the middle of a river. We were all shouting with excitement. When he finally stopped, our heads were still spinning! Trip to a water place is barely complete without getting into the water. So our next stop was at a beach (the river bank is very sandy just like a beach) where we camped all our belongings under the coracle and let ourselves into the partially murky water. The water was shallow and barely reached our waist. As we were walking in the water, I was the first one to loose balance and get a dip. Others followed suite. Ananya was so paranoid after this experience that she clung on to one of us all the time. Meanwhile, Swathi tried a few swimming strokes and had a rather unpleasant tryst with the deep waters. While she was spattering her hands in desperation, I pulled her out but not before she had tasted some of that murky water. She vowed never to venture out in the water again! After some more water splashing, we thought we had had enough. The boatman rowed us back as we sat in there drying our soaked clothes in the sun. On our way back, at the island, we stopped by at a tall tower that gives a nice panoramic view of the whole area. We shot a few pics there before getting back to the base.



By now our tummies were growling and it was high time we had lunch. There are no good restaurants around, but there's a small park where visitors can sit and have food. We parked ourselves around a table and raided the packing that we had got with us. Soon it was time to head back but am sure we all made a silent resolve to visit again when the river was in its full flow post monsoons!

Check out the snaps !

-Ashish.

Pilani pilgrimage

Pilani boasts of one of the most premiere educational institutes in India. So when I and my wife had to visit BITS for my wife's MS viva voce, we were excited and looking forward to our travel. I too having completed the long distance course only an year back was curious to visit my alma mater. Thus started the travel preparations. A quick search on google maps showed that Pilani is not very far (about 200 km) from New Delhi. The BITS website says that there are frequent buses from ISBT (New Delhi) to Pilani right from 5:30 in the morning to as late as 10:30 in the night. We booked a late evening flight from Bangalore to Delhi and planned to take a bus to Pilani the next day morning.


View Larger Map

On the day of our travel, Swathi - my wife - had just got back from the US and I had just landed after attending a hectic conference at Mumbai. We met up at the Bangalore airport both tired and fatigued yet excited about the travel ahead. Pilani was the first leg of our travel. We had planned to visit Chandigarh, Amritsar and then spend the Diwali with my parents at Satara. It was a nice ten days long trip. As there were lot of gifts (that she had got from the US) and many clothes to carry, she thought it convenient to take along the huge Samsonite suitecase (the kind you would carry when you travel overseas). A decision that we would regret through out our trip!

Jet lagged and sleep deprived, we wanted to reach Delhi as soon as possible so we could catch on a good night's sleep before we head for Pilani. But our fate had some other plans. Our 7:30 flight to Delhi was delayed by 30 mins. Considering the punctuality standards of our airlines, that delay would have been acceptable on any other day... but not today! Grumping, growling and finding it hard to keep our eyes open, we got us a cup of coffee and added ourselves to the long queue for security check. Calling it a long queue would be euphemistic. It was more like the legendary never-ending tail of lord Hanuman that grew longer and longer with every passing minute! The whole city seemed to have conspired to travel on the same day. There was mad rush of passengers trying to push their luggage trolleys through the crowd, hitting co-passengers on the way and jumping various queues to make it into the plane in time. The airport logistics had gone haywire that left the departure lobby in utter chaos. There was no sense of time. All flights were running late. The clock was ticking 9:00 when we finally boarded the flight. All let out a sigh when it took to the air but not before another 40 minutes wait. We had long forgotten about sleep and were awake like an owl! The flight was uneventful. We spent most of the time talking. By the time we touched down at Delhi and reached our hotel it was well past mid-night. We must have slept off as soon as we hit the sack.

We had not eaten much the night before, so when the front desk told us that there were hot aalu parathas for breakfast, we were drooling! We didn't plan to linger around in Delhi as reaching Pilani by evening was critical. So after savoring on the parathas and a cup of tea, we checked out of the hotel. I called up the Kashmere Gate bus terminal to enquire on the next bus to Pilani. Imagine my shock on being told that the morning bus had already left and the next one was only at 10:00 in the night! The lady at the other end seemed to have had a bad start to her day. On asking if there were only two buses, she must have frowned as she replied in a what-an-idiot-you-are tone "Isn't that obvious from what I already told you sir"! The BITS website clearly said that there were frequent buses to Pilani, so we had not bothered to cross check. The night bus was obviously not an option as the vivas were starting at 9:00 in the morning. It was too risky and even otherwise would have left little time for her to regain her composure to face the questions. We spent the next few minutes dialing numbers of all the travel agencies that we could lay our hands on. There were no private buses to Pilani and the cars on hire were way too expensive. Just when we seemed to be running out of options, we were told that there were buses to Chirawa from the Sarai Kale Khan terminal and that Pilani was not more than 15 km from there.

The Sarai Kale Khan bus terminal was quite different from what anybody would expect it to be. Being an inter state terminal of the capital city, one would imagine it to be a posh place abuzz with people running around to catch their bus or idly waiting for one, buses meandering through the crowd without running them over, bus conductors calling for the passengers and shops and eat-outs lining the platforms. A few beggars and pick-pocketers strewn here and there would have just completed the picture. This place on the contrary looked like an abandoned station. A couple of buses waiting at their platforms, a few men in khaki uniforms and a small shop selling buiscuits, haldirams and mineral water bottles was all that was there to remind that the terminal was still operational. We approached a khaki clad gentleman on the platform closest to the entrance. He directed us to another platform. Leaving my wife with the luggage, I went to the other platform only to see that there was nobody at the ticket counter. An old man standing there adviced me to check at yet another platform. I felt like a golf ball being hit from one hole to the next! After doing a couple of rounds of the place I came back to the first platform like a lost warrior only to realize that the buses to Chirawa started from there itself. There was one there already and was starting in another hour. The bus seemed to have not been washed for weeks. There was a thick layer of dust on it's body. Thinking about how travelling in it would be and feeling sorry for ourselves, we stepped in. This is when we realized what a big mistake we had commited by carrying that huge samsonite suitcase. The bus had no boot space and the only option was to haul it up on top of the bus! Luckily we found a porter who agreed to help us with the bag. But he could not have done it alone. So up I had to go as he climbed up after me balancing the heavy suitcase on his head! I helped him take it down and we arranged it with some of the other luggage there. Tired by the little exercise, we settled in our seats wondering how a place like Pilani could be so badly connected. Imagine the plight of students and professors there! Least the government or the institute could do is to arrange for a comfortable transport. While we were lost in our wishful thoughts, the driver appeared from nowhere and the bus started exactly at its scheduled departure.

Most of the other co-passengers were villagers from Rajasthan. Men clad in dhotis, kurtas, pagadis and women in colorful saris with little mirrors all over, pallus on their head and hands full of bangles were busily chatting in a typical Rajasthani accent. Dressed in jeans and t-shirt, we must have seemed like aliens to them as we received a lot of looks. In spite of being a sunny afternoon, there was a cool breeze outside that acted like a soothing agent over the otherwise bumpy ride. The bus took 6 hours to cover the 200 kms. It passed though many rustic villages on the way before reaching Chirawa. We had trouble lugging the suitcase down. There was no porter around but a gentleman came to our rescue. Two of us managed to take it down just when the bus had started to move for its onward journey. I had to literally jump off the ladder! We had had enough adventures for the day. So when an auto driver agreed to take us to Pilani for 100 bucks we jumped in.

The Pilani campus and the VFAST hostel where we stayed seemed like heaven after the torturous journey. The room was immaculately clean and well maintained. After a hot shower, we went straight down to the mess hall. We were starving and the food was amazing. We ate like a pig.

One of the professors there, jokingly described visiting Pilani as a pilgrimage. A journey you would undergo (or rather want to undergo) only once in your lifetime. He asked us to make the best use of it. So after her viva the next day, we took a walk around the 328 acre campus and visited the library and the Saraswati temple. It clearly had an aura of being a premiere educational institute and we felt both proud and happy to be associated with it. It was soon time to move on to the next leg of our trip. Getting out of Pilani was no less a torture but I guess I will leave that for another write-up!